October 22, 2021
Introduction
The session was addressing the investment policy implications of the new industrial revolution. Highlighting the shift towards the digital space for major industrial functioning such as automation, data analytics, production system and the way goods & services are delivered to markets. The broad issues addressed in this session were about the investment landscape and technological development shaping industry, how multinational firms are taking advantage of investment opportunities and dealing with the challenges associated with it and also different countries’ role in attracting the investment opportunities with the help of digital technology.
Session Highlights
The Panellists highlighted the importance of automation and digitalisation and the need to move towards automation and digitalisation that reduces costs. The government is encouraging the existing industry to transform itself into industry 4.0. Data analytics and industrial transformation have been given priority in most of the emerging countries. Training grants have been given by the government for upskilling for increasing manufacturing. The Panellists also discussed the agenda of industry 4.0 in terms of smart manufacturing and increasing efficiency through automation. Immense growth has been seen in the number of firms, and the number of jobs offered. A significant amount of investment has been done for data centres and cloud centres and COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this process.
The speakers pointed out that adapting to Industry 4.0 will add an advantage to attract more investment from crossborders. Moreover, countries need to develop authentic data centres and cloud applications in order to counter the challenges associated with it. Recent times have seen tremendous adoption of cloud based working that resulted in the growth of the existing industry. Also focused on the point that how this adoption of cloud can bring secular change worldwide and create a lot of job opportunities with fewer threats involved with the possibility to collapse altogether.
Opening
- Mr. Richard Bolwijn, Head, Investment Research Branch, DIAE, UNCTAD
On the panel were:
Panel I: Attracting technologies for Industry 4.0: Best practice
- H.E. Ms.DuangjaiAsawachintachit, Secretary General, Board of Investment, Thailand
- Mr. Markus Hess, Deputy Director General, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany
- Mr. Andrés Rodríguez Rowe, Managing Director, InvestChile
- Mr.YunusHoosen, Acting Head, Inward Investment Attraction, Facilitation and Aftercare, Invest South Africa
- Mr. Lucas Fiuza, Director, ApexBrasil, Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency
Panel II: Global digital investment landscape and Industry 4.0
- Mr. Thomas Hahn, Chief Expert Software, Siemens AG and Member of the Steering Committee of PlattformIndustrie 4.0
- Dr.Natan Linder, Co-Founder and CEO, Tulip and Co-Founder and Chairman, Formlabs
- Mr. Stephen McKinley, Co-Founder, Ambi Robotics and Co-Creator, Berkeley Open Arms
- Mr. Sandeep Bhadra, Partner, Vertex Ventures
Trackers and international organisations; Global investment in industrial automation, IoT and robotics technology
- Dr. Susanne Bieller, Secretary General, International Federation of Robotics
- Mr. Patrick Van den Bossche, Partner, Global Advanced Analytics Practice Head, AT Kearney
- Mr. Stephen Mellor, Chief Technical Officer, Industry IoT Consortium
Moderator
- Ms. Laurel Ruma, Editorial Director, MIT Technology Review Insights